We ardently pray that the Supreme Disposer of events, who is the refuge of the distressed, and the assured friend of the benefactors of mankind, may signally reward and succeed your noble and generous designs and efforts, for the redress of our grievances, and the vindication of our injured rights and liberties.

We joyfully anticipate the pleasure of seeing your names, and the names of your worthy and respectable brethren of the Congress, enrolled in the annals of America, and transmitted to the latest generations, as the friends and deliverers of your country; of beholding your conduct and measures, applauded and adopted by every City, Town, and County, in the British Colonies, and of having your just and well merited praises resounded from one end of this extensive Continent to the other.

Gentlemen, with hearts penetrated with unutterable gratitude, and overflowing with benevolent wishes for every blessing on you and your posterity, we have the honour of being your affectionate countrymen, and much obliged humble servants. By order of the Committee.

ABRAHAM KETELTAS, Chairman.

To Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Jay, John Alsop, Isaac Low, Simon Boerum, Henry Wisner, and William Floyd, Esquires.

TO WHICH THEY RETURNED THE FOLLOWING ANSWER:

GENTLEMEN: In the present important contest for the rights and liberties of America, it gives us pleasure to find so respectable a number of the inhabitants of Queen's County publickly testifying their approbation of our conduct at the late Congress, and cheerfully disposed to cooperate with their countrymen in the defence of the common cause.

The pacifick mode of opposition prescribed by the Association, against the ruinous policy of a deceived and vindictive Ministry, although productive of temporary inconveniences, will, in all probability, terminate in the restoration of those inestimable privileges, which, as Englishmen, are our unalienable birth-right.

The power, the glory, and stability of the British Empire, {of which America composes so capital a branch,) depend on the connection and harmony of its several members, and therefore a cordial and permanent union with the parent state, founded on principles of constitutional liberty, cannot cease to be the object of our earnest solicitude, and the grand point in which the efforts of every wise and virtuous Patriot must ultimately centre. Directed by a motive so laudable and salutary, while, by faithfully adhering to the Association, we manifest a zealous attachment to the interest of our country, and an inflexible resolution to maintain our just rights with manly fortitude, let us, by studiously preserving the internal order and tranquillity of the Province, and discountenancing every act of outrage and licentiousness, convince our enemies, that, far from being intoxicated by giddy ambition, or inflamed by a restless spirit of faction, we hold nothing in greater abhorrence than the malignant charge that we aspire after domination and independence.

Permit us to add our most grateful acknowledgments for the obliging and affectionate sentiments expressed in your letter, and to assure you, that we shall esteem ourselves happy in every opportunity of contributing to your welfare and prosperity. We are, gentlemen, with the greatest esteem, your most obedient and obliged servants,

To the Reverend Mr. Abraham Keteltas, Chairman, and the Gentlemen of the Committee for the Township of Jamaica.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN IS MASSACHUSETTS TO HIS FRIEND IN LONDON, DATED JANUARY 21, 1775.

You have no doubt long before this time heard the particulars of the General Congress, and that the Court and the Country have digested their thoughts upon them, if not adopted their consequent plans of conduct. God grant that the Nation and Parliament may think favourably of them, and grant the prayer of our Petition to the King. Britain and America are made to be friends; and it is the most unnatural, detestable quarrel between them, that ever happened in the world. Britons and Americans may write or say what they will, but this quarrel never will, and never can, be made up, but by restoring us to the state we were in, in 1763. It is as certain as that London or Boston exist, that no other plan or scheme of policy that ever can be invented, will keep the two countries together, but that which nature dictated, and which experience found useful for one hundred and fifty years. It is in vain, it is delirium, it is phrenzy, to think of dragooning three millions of English people out of their liberties, at the distance of three thousand miles. It is still more extravagantly wild for a Nation to think of doing it, when itself is sinking down into a bottomless gulf of debt, in order to make the conquered lift her out of it.

The Congress have drawn a line by the banks of the Ocean. They have claimed their own exclusive jurisdiction in all interiour concerns, and in all cases of Taxation. They have left to Great Britain the exclusive sovereignty of the Ocean, and over their Trade. They have placed both upon constitutional principles; and if Britons are not content with all we have but our liberty, we say, as the Corporation of London said to the King, in 1770, "we call God and men to witness, that as we do not owe our liberty to those nice and subtile distinctions which pensions and lucrative employments have invented, so neither will we be deprived of it by them; but as it was gained by the stern virtue of our ancestors, by the virtue of their descendants it shall be preserved."

The Congress consisted of the Representatives of twelve Colonies. Three millions of free white people were there represented. Many of the Members were gentlemen of ample fortunes and eminent abilities. Neither corruption nor intrigue had any share, I believe, in their elections to this service, and in their proceedings you may see the sense, the temper, and principles of America, and which she will support and defend even by force of arms, if no other means will do.

The state of this Province is a great curiosity. I wish the pen of some able historian may transmit it to posterity. Four hundred thousand people are in a state of nature, and yet as still and peaceable at present as ever they were when Government was in full vigour. We have neither Legislators, nor Magistrates, nor Executive Officers. We have no officers but Military ones. Of these we have a multitude, chosen by the people, and exercising them with more authority and spirit than ever any did who had commissions from a Governour.

The Town of Boston is a spectacle worthy of the attention of a Deity; suffering amazing distress, yet determined to endure as much as human nature can, rather than betray America and posterity. General Gage's Army is sickly, and extremely addicted to desertion. What would they be if things were brought to extremities? Do you think such an. Army would march through our woods and thickets, and Country Villages, to cut the throats of honest people contending for liberty?

The neighbouring Colonies of New-Hampshire, Rhode-Island, and Connecticut, are arming and training themselves with great spirit; and if they must be driven to the last appeal, devoutly praying for the protection of Heaven.

There is a spirit prevailing here such as I never saw before. I remember the conquest of Louisburg, in 1745; I remember the spirit here when the Duke D' Anville's Squadron was upon this Coast, when forty thousand men marched down to Boston, and were mustered and numbered upon the Common, complete in Arms, from this Province Only in three weeks; but I remember nothing like what I have seen these six months past.

CHARLES COUNTY (MARYLAND) COMMITTEE.

At a Meeting of the Committee of Charles County, at Mrs. Anne Halkerston's, in Port Tobacco Town, on Saturday, the 21st day of January, 1775:

Captain GEORGE DENT, Chairman, and
JOHN GWINN, Clerk.

Moved and seconded, That the sense of this Committee be taken, whether any Directions shall be given to the Attorneys of this County, to prevent their bringing Suits at Law, further than is done by the last Provincial Conven-